


Mistaken Intentions

by cosmicoyote



Series: Marichat May 2020 One-Shots [4]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Marichat May 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:27:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24015202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmicoyote/pseuds/cosmicoyote
Summary: Prompt Four: ThiefComing home after a long day of school, all Marinette wants to do is sit back and do knitting projects to relax her mind. The issue is, her balls of yarn keep vanishing. She already has a suspect, and she plans to trap him to catch the thief in the act.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: Marichat May 2020 One-Shots [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1728427
Comments: 10
Kudos: 139





	Mistaken Intentions

**Author's Note:**

> Maybe I shouldn't try and think up names for things so late at night. Or edit. Ah, well.
> 
> A tiny bit of angst with some comfort, but it's mostly fluff, fluff, and more fluff. Most of these will be like this because positive, sweet things make me happy. 
> 
> I hope these one-shots improve your mood, too. :)

"Okay, that DOES IT!"

Marinette stormed from her bedroom, cell phone gripped in her hand like a weapon as she marched down the stairs. She dialed the number to her source of all things scheming and diabolical and fought to swallow her temper as the line rang.

"Hey, girl!" Alya answered with enthusiasm. "What's up?"

Marinette cocked a hip as she leaned against the wall in the foyer, looking out their side door at the park, her phone cradled against her cheek while she fidgeted with a piece of bright pink yarn. That piece was the only evidence left at the scene of the crime, and she was holding onto it to fuel her irritation and drive her to be as conniving as possible. She needed to focus because a part of her knew that the act was harmless. However, it was also extremely inconvenient to come home after a long day of school with the desire to lose herself in a project, only to find the yarn she wanted to use is missing!

She needed to catch the culprit in the act if she wanted to put a stop to it, but this particular thief would not be an easy one to catch. She needed to be as sneaky as her target to snag him and make him regret stealing from her.

"Do you know where I can get some nets?" Marinette asked, so focused on the beginnings of her plan that she threw her greeting to the winds.

She heard Alya make a choking sound on the other end of the line then clear her throat. "Uh, sorry, did you say 'nets', girl? As in, like, the kind people fish with?"

"Yeah, those," Marinette affirmed, still twirling the yarn in between her fingers. "Do you know where I can get one? A big one. Like... big enough to snag a person," she narrowed her eyes at the remnant of string in her hands, "Or a large cat," she added in a growl.

Alya snorted. "Yeah, I think I can find one for you. Just let me make a few calls first. Okay?"

"Yeah. Thanks, Al. I owe you one." Marinette leaned against the wall in relief.

"Pfft! How many is that now?" Alya teased her. "Don't sweat it. I'll call you when I got the goods. Call ya later, girl."

They hung up. 

Marinette huffed, frowning up at her ceiling as if she could see through the ceiling and floors to her bedroom. Once Alya got her a net, all that would be left to do is set the trap, drop the bait, and wait for it to be sprung. Then she would catch the dirty thief and make him regret messing with her.

She smiled, feeling a little sinister, like a villain preparing to ambush the oblivious hero.

This recent theft had not been the first which is why she was so irate and ready to stoop to asking Alya if she knew people who carried fishing nets. Every time she found one of her yarn balls missing, she would try and hover around in the following days to see if the thief would try again. She would be ready to pounce before he could steal another one of her yarn balls, but he had been smart and avoided her room whenever she was hiding in or near it.

Of course, he had superpowers on his side.

It wasn't as if she could transform into Ladybug and confront him. That would call into question her identity or at least her association with the spotted hero. Talk about awkward.

So, after nearly a month of this thief's antics, Marinette had reached her breaking point and was prepared to play cat and mouse with this burglar. Though, she had been the mouse for nearly all this time.

Now, it was Marinette's turn to be the cat.

~~~ *** ~~~

Several hours later, Marinette had an amateur trap set in her room. The net was spread out and hidden decently well in the darkened room. With the lights off, she knew he had night vision, but he would hopefully be too focused on her brightly colored yarn to notice.

She had purchased yarn so bright, it might as well glow in the dark. The new set included neon pink, lime green, and highlighter yellow. Hopefully, it would be too much for him to resist.

So, she curled up in bed, turned off her lamp, and fell asleep.

Marinette wasn't sleeping long when she was awoken by the slight creak of her window. Normally, nothing short of a nuclear explosion would rouse her from her sleep, but perhaps her senses were wound out from being subconsciously alert to intruders. Then again, only one out of the previous five thefts had been at night. The others had been during the day while she was out. Plus, it wasn't like people made a habit out of climbing into her room at night. Mostly.

Whatever the reason may be, Marinette kept her back to the room and maintained a slow breathing pattern as to not alert the intruder she was awake.

Soft footfalls move across her room, and her heart rate increases excitedly as the thief nears her desk. Any moment now, he would step on the trip wire and spring the trap.

Any moment now...

Any _second_ , he had to trigger the nets...

When several seconds ticked by and nothing happened, Marinette got impatient. With an annoyed growl, she sat bolt up right. Kicking her comforter off angrily, she ignored the startled yowl that came from the thief and marched over to her trap.

"I can't believe this stupid thing didn't work!" she snarled, tapping her bare toe against the netting on the floor.

She heard the intruder gulp, and she turned blazing eyes on the culprit who stood rooted to the spot.

With his bright eyes and nervously twitching tail, Chat Noir was looking the picture of the innocent kitten. But she knew better. His hands were behind his back for one thing, and for another the stutter in his voice was not fooling this sleepy yet grumpy girl.

"G-Good evening, P-Princess," he managed meekly.

She gave him her best Ladybug death glare that caused him to swallow hard again and fidget.

"Fancy s-seeing you here," he added with a forced smile, but his tail tucked low under him as she marched right up to him and grabbed him by his bell. 

Marinette pulled him down to her eye level (their height differences caused him to bow awkwardly) and met his dilated pupils with tired annoyance.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked him, her voice calm but as chilly as ice.

He grimaced. "Um, so, I was just... admiring your projects and-"

She let go of him, but she stomped her foot in a small fit of rage. "Don't _lie_ to me, Chat Noir. I swear I'll-"

SNAP!

Marinette had approximately a half of a second to comprehend what that sound meant, but by the time she did figure it out, it was too late anyways. The next thing she knew, she was being smooshed up against a hard, leather-covered torso.

She had closed her eyes when her head hit him, so it took her another moment to register the frantic thumping she could detect as her cheek was flattened against his chest.

Chat was as rigid as a board and not moving apart from his nervous breathing. The thudding sound under her ear was his pounding heart. Slowly, she peeled her cheek from his tight costume and leaned back to assess the mess they found themselves in.

Chat Noir was beneath her, her legs straddling him, with his back arched as the net constricted around them. One arm was trapped under him while the other was currently gripping her shoulder. When she looked down at his clawed hand, he blushed and pulled it away hastily.

"My... my a- _paw_ -logies," he said in a hushed tone.

"Stupid net," Marinette grumbled, ignoring his embarrassment. "My trap didn't work properly."

"It obviously worked!" Chat huffed back at her. "It just took its time, apparently."

She frowned because he was obviously in great discomfort, not only because of his pinned arm but because she was sitting on his stomach. She sat up more and gripped the sides of the net, trying to straighten herself.

"Can you use your claws to get us free?"

"S-Sure," he replied quietly, his cheeks still flushed. "Hang on to me. There's no graceful way to do this."

He used the sharpened nails on his free hand to snag the nets. It took a moment for him to get through the mesh then the netting itself, but they were soon toppling out from Marinette's failed booby-trap. 

Chat had wrapped his arm around her as they fell, and he took the brunt of the landing even though the drop was only about a foot or two from the ground.

Marinette steadied her breathing as she lay over her trembling companion. He was warm, and she found herself unconsciously enjoying the close contact... Then she realized what she was doing and threw herself off of him. Now it was her turn to resemble a tomato in the face. She was barely getting over her embarrassment when she realized something was going on with her kitty.

"Chat... you okay?" she asked timidly as she took in his closed eyes, his now pale face, and his heaving chest. He had curled up on his side the moment she was no longer acting as a clumsy blanket lying sprawled on top of him. Slowly, she put a hand on his shoulder, and he cracked his eyes open a little to look up at her. For several long moments, they just stared into one another's eyes, emerald green into bright bluebell, then Chat broke the silence.

"Sorry... I don't do well i-in small spaces."

Feeling sick to her stomach, Marinette gently put her hand under his head and the other around his back to gently lift most of his torso in her lap. She had done the same for him as Ladybug a long time ago after her poor kitty had been locked in a hotel freezer by Lady Wi-Fi.

"No, _I'm_ sorry. I didn't realize how scared you were while we were in there." Marinette gently stroked his hair in an attempt to comfort him. Her heart warmed when he leaned into her touch with a soft sigh.

He huffed and stretched out his legs as her light touches appeared to help him relax. "I wasn't so scared at first," he said, his eyes lifting to meet hers again. His belt tail twitched playfully as his signature smirk danced across his lips. "I was a little... _distracted_."

Her face red again, she flicked his bell to display her irritation instead of shoving him off her lap like she half wanted to. Only remembering seeing him hyperventilating a moment before kept her from making him eat carpet.

"You flirt," she grumbled at him, though her own heart had picked up - mirroring the vigorous activity his had performed while they were sandwiched in the net. "If you're feeling that much better, you can get off my lap."

Chat Noir made a mewing sound and snuggled closer. "I'm good!"

Smiling, she played with one of his leather cat ears. "I'm still mad at you for taking my yarn."

"Yeah, about that." Chat sat up slowly and, reluctantly it seemed, he left the shelter of her lap and sat down across from her beside the now useless net. "I didn't mean to make you mad, Princess. I meant it to be a joke at first but then..." he trailed off shyly.

When she arched an eyebrow, he smiled and reached over to pick up the neon green yarn that apparently had fallen to the floor when the net snatched them up. It was undoubtedly what he had had behind his back when she caught him. He tossed the ball up then batted it around a little before lobbing it over his shoulder. The yarn sailed through the air than landed with a light "thump" among its fellows as it landed perfectly in the basket on her desk.

She snorted. "Why did you have to steal, though?"

Chat blinked then put a hand over his heart. "Me-ouch, Princess. I didn't steal anything. I just... moved the yarn around."

"What do you mean?" she asked, staring at him.

He cocked his head. "You mean... you never found them?"

She narrowed her eyes. "No! I assumed you took them, hence me accusing you of stealing!" She threw her hands in the air to emphasize her exasperation.

At that, he snorted and got up to wonder over to her bed. He reached under her mattress and produced a ball of baby blue yarn and another that was a shade of magenta. Those were the first two she had noticed missing.

"I was just teasing you. I didn't mean for you to get mad." Chat swallowed and handed her the two yarn balls. 

As she took them, she noticed a little piece of paper poking out from each of them. She paused and pulled them free of the string. The first was a note that said:

 _I hope you're having a meow-arvelous day, Princess!_ with a little cat face in the lower right corner.

The other had in the same writing:

_This cat whiskers you a pleasant evening!_

Her throat felt tight. He hadn't been stealing from her at all; he had been moving the yarn so she would look for them and find his cute (albeit cheesy) positivity notes. Blinking the beginnings of tears out of her eyes, she looked up at her now smiling cat friend.

"Chat..." she started, her voice strangled. "I... I'm so sorry. I genuinely thought you were taking them to mess with me."

Instead of getting annoyed, he snickered and crouched down to meet her eyes again. "Nah. I mean, I guess that sounds like something I would do, but... you seemed so sad lately, Princess. I wanted to try and bring a smile to your face." He grimaced. "I guess I could've left the notes on your desk or on your balcony door, but what fun would that be?"

Guilt ate away at her stomach like acid. She put down the notes and threw her arms around his neck, crushing him in a bear hug that could rival ones her dad gave.

Chat grunted in surprise then slowly put his arms around her.

"Thank you," she murmured into his ear. "You are the sweetest kitty ever." She snuggled into him, and he held her gently. She allowed a little time to enjoy his warmth and pleasant scent before pulling back and wiping at her eyes. "Now I can't wait to find the yarn and your cute notes."

His face lit up and he helped her stand. "Do you want help looking for them?" he asked eagerly.

She shook her head. "Nah. I'll find them on my own over the next couple of days. The notes will seem more special then, and the hunt for them will be half the fun."

Chat smiled at her, and she felt her annoyance with him from the past couple of days drain out of her and become replaced by warm affection for her friend who was going out of his way to make her days just a little bit brighter.

**Author's Note:**

> This one-shot is dedicated to the "___ loves you" accounts on Twitter from multiple fandoms that were created to spread positivity. MLB has several, and I saw some from the PJO, Dragon Prince, and Voltron fandoms as well.
> 
> Keep spreading those good vibes, everyone! 
> 
> Your feedback and kudos mean the world to me. ♥


End file.
